Best Managed

Simpson Seeds Inc.

Focusing strategy on family helps seed company flourish

Brothers Greg, Tom and John Simpson, who founded Simpson Seeds in 1975, have not just built a successful entrepreneurial family business; they have also been major players in pioneering the pulse industry in Canada.

“It was an expression for freedom for us in the Prairies because we were stuck in a monoculture, a single-selling desk environment, mainly with the Canadian Wheat Board,” says Greg Simpson. “What was nice about the special crops industry, which includes pulse crops, is that it was freewheeling. There were no government restrictions and it allowed the entrepreneurial spirit to fly.”

With customers in more than 70 countries around the world, Simpson Seeds’ entrepreneurial spirit has been flying far and wide. But the company isn’t just about entrepreneurship and innovation.

“We developed a strategy that was, No. 1, really focused on family,” Mr. Simpson says. “Some companies are developed with the modus operandi that they’re going to build a company and sell it. But our vision was clearly thinking of how to take this company and make it a multi-generational, special crops export company.”

He adds, “In recent years, we’ve worked on developing a clearly articulated strategy to achieve that vision. We appointed a very capable independent advisory board made up of non-family members who bring some great insights, which also helped define the roles and responsibilities for all our staff because we don’t want just a family business — we want a professional family business.”

The process helped the Simpson brothers identify a skill gap in their management team — and as a result they hired Clayton Bzdel as their CFO, who has helped the company establish key performance indicators that are used at a management meeting each Monday to review how the company is doing in achieving its short-term and long-term goals.

Meanwhile, helping to achieve the dream of a multi-generational family business are six of the three founding brothers’ children.

“They are the up-and-coming generation who will take us into the future,” Mr. Simpson says. Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Financial Post